Tuesday, June 4, 2013

Some NYC Teachers Will Be Held Accountable For Test Scores In Subjects They Don't Teach

Because it makes sense to hold the health and physical educaiton teachers accountable using math and English test scores:

A host of city public-school art, gym and other teachers will be rated next year not by their students’ work but by how their schools do on state math and reading exams.

Schoolwide results will count for up to 40 percent of teachers’ ratings in subjects that don’t have standardized tests, such as health and some languages.

State Education Commissioner John King, compelled by state law to craft the city’s evaluation system, made schoolwide results the default if principals don’t select other rating tools.
 
“Student scores reflect the work of many personnel, and in some schools, schoolwide measures may be beneficial to support increased collaboration and accountability amongst staff across all grades and subjects,” he wrote in his 241-page evaluation plan.

City Department of Education officials, who support the use of schoolwide measures for rating certain teachers, are said to be developing their own tests. But yesterday they couldn’t provide a list of current or future DOE-produced exams.

Teachers in Florida are suing over a similar stipulation in Florida's teacher evaluation law.

That lawsuit is expected to have repercussions across the country for other teachers who are being evaluated using test scores of students they don't teach or test scores from subjects they don't teach.

Teachers in NYC ought to sue over this provision too.

The more lawsuits there are against King's decree, the more King and his NYSED goons have to defend the indefensible, the sooner we can send this system to the grave.

4 comments:

  1. Just as so-called education reform is, among other nefarious things, a jobs program for fatuous TFA types, so too will this evaluation system be a Full Employment Act for lawyers.

    I guess it's just as well, since our union, rather than fighting on our behalf, is now co-managing the process of culling teachers.

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    1. It looks like the fight against this piece of shit law is going to have to come from the rank-and-file. The leadership is on the take.

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  2. I noticed that...June 4, 2013 at 9:27 AM

    I wouldn't underestimate the infinite dismal wisdom of the DoE to eventually create an assessment test for students to take regarding their lunch periods. The DoE would have objective measure with rigor of how students choose their lunch, chew their food, etc., etc.

    Now that's a test that students can bite into.

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    1. Shudder, shudder - the poor paras and school aides will get VAMMED too!

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